Chapter Fourteen
Anger. Fear. Pain. Grief. It was as if every emotion Wren had ignored or pushed down, swallowed or held back over his twenty-five years had all decided to come out in one reckless act.
He was gutted he’d yelled at Devon, who had been nothing but kind to him, but he was angry with the man, too.
Wren had seen how the men interacted in the Alley, and they were all proud of themselves – the way they were.
Why didn’t he have the same rights? Why couldn’t he be who he knew he was inside?
Inside. That was where the fear came in, why Wren had spent so much time in the bathroom earlier. There was something moving inside of him – he could feel it stretching his skin, looking out of his eyes, tapping into what he could hear. Everything was suddenly so much “more.”
He'd been able to hear conversations between people on the other side of the road from him. His eyes seemed capable of picking up so many subtle visual details he was sure would’ve been too small to notice before.
Sitting on the porch, for example, and picking out the color of a bird’s eye perched high up in a tree twenty yards away.
It was weird and overwhelming. Wren didn’t have a clue how to cope with all the added details his brain was receiving, and what was worse was that Devon wasn’t helping.
Look at you moving so fast and free. It’s exhilarating. The voice came unbidden in his head, causing him to stumble.
Who are you? Am I losing my mind now as well? Wren kept going. He had no idea where he was going – he had no destination in mind - but he’d felt like running his whole life, and finally he could.
I am the other half of you…the part that stayed hidden to keep you safe.
Safe? Wren wanted to laugh, but he was running out of breath. I’ve never been safe until Bear bought me here... And now they’re chasing me, too.
We’re among our own kind at last, and Bear is our mate.
I still don’t know what that means!
Wren couldn’t believe he had an “other half,” but it was typical that the damn being, spirit, animal, or whatever else it was that was inside of him was proving to be just as unhelpful as Bear. If you are part of me, why can’t you help me?
Ooh, yes. I can do that now. I’m just as free as you are. What do you want to be? Bigger?
Wren risked a look over his shoulder. You do realize there’s a big bear and a bull chasing me right now. We’d never be bigger than them.
Hmm. Good point. Bigger and stronger than a bear and a bull. Wren, you can stop running now. Stop running and quickly take that lovely sweatshirt off. We don’t want to rip it.
Wren stopped. If someone had asked him why, he could’ve claimed it was because he was puffed, he was tired of running, or he really didn’t want to escape Bear – he just wished Bear would listen to him.
But what really made him stop in a small glade, conscious of the heavy breathing approaching fast, was the being inside of him who cared about his sweatshirt, too.
He quickly stripped off his shirt, half-bent over as he was breathing hard.
This is going to feel really strange for our first time, but don’t fight it. Don’t fight the other half of your being. Relax and let it happen.
What’s happening? But even as Wren thought that, he felt a strange tingle over his whole body, and suddenly, he was looking down at where Bear and his friends were.
He could see Bear stumble on his feet as he stopped running, saw the bull shifter and Levi, along with Flint, all stop running too.
But then his vision was blurring again, as he changed into…
/~/~/~/~/
“You need to shift back,” Flint hissed urgently. “It’s your mate’s first shift and fucking hell, what’s that? A fucking dragon? Wren’s not a dragon.”
It sure looked like he was, but as Devon shifted into his human form, his mouth dropped open as the large green dragon morphed again.
This time into a bear – one far larger than Devon’s animal side.
There was another shimmer, and then a bull shifter appeared where the bear had been – again, far bigger and with longer horns than even Calvin’s shifted form, and he was huge.
“How’s he doing this?” Levi sounded as stunned as Devon felt. “Is Wren even a shifter?”
Devon could only shake his head. He had no idea. “Flint, text Python, will you? Ask him to come. He might know what’s going on.” He took a step closer to the being – his mate – who was now a crocodile twice the size of Storm in his shifted form.
“Wren. Babe. Are you still in there? Are you all right?”
The crocodile snapped his big teeth and then morphed into a large lizard looking animal.
“Fuck, that’s a Komodo dragon.” Flint stuffed his phone back into his pocket. “Python’s coming. Don’t get near those teeth, Devon.”
“He won’t hurt me.” Devon had to trust that was true.
No matter what form Wren was in, his animal side…
sides…whatever, would recognize they were mates.
That was instinct, regardless of species.
“Wren, I’m not sure that shifting so quickly between forms so often is good for you for your first time.
It’s incredible what you can do – truly, I’m in awe. But can you listen to me for a moment?”
Flint started giggling as Wren morphed into a huge elephant, with exceptionally large ears, flapping in Devon’s direction. “I guess he’s telling you he’s listening.”
I could’ve done without an audience for this.
Blowing out a long breath, Devon took another step closer.
“Wren, I never meant to disregard your feelings or what you wanted for yourself.” He swallowed the lump in his throat and resisted the urge to thump his dick.
There was no way he was going to be able to hide how his body was responding to his mate.
“I’m an assassin. It’s my job to blend in, to be unnoticeable.
It’s why I’m good at what I do. I didn’t realize, until I caused you to run from me… ”
“Oh, shit.” Levi whistled quietly. He was leaning on Calvin’s shifted shoulder. “Sounds like you made a huge mistake.”
Levi was easy to ignore. Devon kept his focus on Wren. “I didn’t realize how I was trying to inflict those standards on you, and I’m sorry.”
The elephant tilted his head and then lifted his trunk and trumpeted to the sky.
“You know, if we had claimed each other, I’d know what you were trying to say.
” That garnered Devon another snort. “I know.” Devon ran his hand through his hair.
“That’s my fault, too.” He moved forward until he was within touching distance.
He wanted to touch his mate – he always did.
But with Wren morphing from one shape to the other, Devon wasn’t sure if he should.
“You have to understand… Please,” he said softly.
“The first time I saw you, you were standing on a ledge, having already decided to… to…” He couldn’t say the words.
“From where I was standing, all I could see was you looking so frail, so…worn down. I didn’t know you were my mate then, but even without that knowledge, I wanted to protect you and keep you safe.
This place, learning about the paranormal world – you had so much to absorb in a matter of days. I didn’t want to overwhelm you.”
Devon forced his hands to stay down, to not reach out even though the urge to do so was intense.
“A shifter claims their mate with sex,” he said bluntly.
“You can see how much I want you. Standing naked in front of you, I can’t hide that.
It’s blatantly fucking obvious. I didn’t know if you knew about sex.
I couldn’t trust myself to have a sensible, calm, rational discussion with you – the way you deserved – because all I’ve wanted to do is claim you.
If I’d started talking about it, my need to do it could’ve overpowered my control.
“Do you have any idea what it’s been like, having you living in my house, your scent touching every surface?
Sleeping in bed with you, never daring to get under the covers because I wasn’t sure if I could control myself.
I want that claim. I want to have sex with you.
To touch you, kiss you all over, bite you, fuck you, and stake that fucking claim.
To have you do the same to me. But how the hell was I going to know you were ready? ”
“Strikes me that you should’ve just asked.”
Great. Now Python had joined the party. “Don’t you think I would’ve asked if I thought I could. I said I wanted to protect Wren from the moment I saw him, and for every second since I took in his scent for the first time. It’s just these past few days I’ve been desperate to protect him from me!”
Devon was ready to cry. “Wren deserves the absolute best in a mate. I had to be calm. I had to be controlled. A shifter’s passion for someone raised as a human would be overwhelming.
But controlling myself… I’m barely getting any sleep, and I’m snapping at my friends.
I’m terrified of losing my mate before I’ve had a chance to even kiss those sweet lips, but there was no way I was going to be another fucking Michael. Until I was. Because I didn’t listen.”
“Your mate’s clearly not human. In fact, he’s incredibly unique.” Python came up to stand beside him. “Did you want to show your true self, little warrior? You’re among friends here.”
“What do you mean by true self?” Confusion didn’t do a lot for Devon’s frustration.
“So far, Wren’s been a dragon, a bear, a bull, a crocodile, a Komodo dragon, and now he’s an elephant.
What on earth could his true form be? From the looks of things, he can be anything he likes. I’m not sure Wren’s even a shifter.”